Clearer Homepage Discovery

Leucos

Website

Concept

Clearer Homepage Discovery

Leucos

Website

Concept

Clearer Homepage Discovery

Year

2025

Role

UX/UI Designer

Skills

UX Audit Competitive Analysis Information Architecture UX/UI Design Accessibility Usability Testing

Year

2025

Role

UX/UI Designer

Skills

UX Audit Competitive Analysis Information Architecture UX/UI Design Accessibility Usability Testing

The Challenge

Leucos’ homepage captured the visual sophistication of its lighting, but its structure made the experience harder to navigate. The brand’s value proposition was unclear, key sections were hidden behind a desktop hamburger menu, and the hierarchy offered little guidance toward products, projects, or brand content. Ambiguous labels and inconsistent interaction patterns made browsing less predictable, while the full-screen hero created a false bottom that could leave the rest of the page undiscovered. Auto-playing carousels and hover-dependent actions also introduced accessibility barriers. The challenge was to make the homepage clearer and easier to explore without losing its premium, image-led character.

The Solution

I restructured the information architecture and homepage hierarchy to create clearer paths through the brand’s content. The redesign introduced a descriptive value proposition, visible desktop navigation, prioritised entry points, clearer copy, and consistent interaction signifiers. Reducing the hero to 90vh revealed part of the next section and signalled that more content was available, while manual carousel controls and permanently visible actions made the experience more stable and accessible. I refined the design across four iterations and validated the final direction through two usability sessions, where users found the navigation clearer.

The Results

2/2

Usability sessions validated clearer navigation

Explore the Prototype

Original Leucos homepage showing a product-focused hero carousel and a product collection section with limited introductory context.

The Process

A premium brand still needs a clear way in

Leucos is a high-end Italian lighting brand rooted in Venetian hand-blown glass. Its website serves two distinct audiences: architecture and design professionals seeking products, technical specifications, and project references; and design-conscious consumers looking for statement pieces.

To understand how the homepage could support both, I reviewed homepage best practices, benchmarked Artemide, Alessi, and Moooi, and audited the existing experience. The research showed that visual storytelling alone was not enough: users also needed clearer entry points into the brand and its offer. This translated into five design goals: clarify the value proposition, surface navigation and search, prioritize products and projects, strengthen labels and hierarchy, and improve accessibility.

Finding where the experience broke down

I audited the homepage using heuristic evaluation, Gestalt principles, and WCAG accessibility checks, looking at how navigation, hierarchy, copy, and interaction patterns worked together.

The audit revealed seven connected gaps:

Unclear value proposition
No obvious task priority
Hidden and redundant navigation
A false bottom
Ambiguous copy and context
Inconsistent interaction signifiers
Inaccessible motion and hover-dependent actions

Together, these issues weakened clarity, consistency, visibility, recognition, and user control, making a visually striking homepage harder to understand and explore.

I audited the homepage using heuristic evaluation, Gestalt principles, and WCAG accessibility checks, looking at how navigation, hierarchy, copy, and interaction patterns worked together.

The audit revealed seven connected gaps:

Unclear value proposition
No obvious task priority
Hidden and redundant navigation
A false bottom
Ambiguous copy and context
Inconsistent interaction signifiers
Inaccessible motion and hover-dependent actions

Together, these issues weakened clarity, consistency, visibility, recognition, and user control, making a visually striking homepage harder to understand and explore.

Shaping a clearer experience around the brand

I used the audit findings as a decision framework, focusing the redesign on clearer orientation, stronger hierarchy, and more predictable interaction. I brought navigation and search into view, clarified the hero’s value proposition, and reorganized the homepage around products, projects, and brand content. A 90vh hero introduced a visible continuation cue, while clearer labels, consistent interaction signifiers, manual carousel controls, and permanently visible CTAs reduced ambiguity and improved accessibility. Together, these decisions made the experience easier to navigate without weakening Leucos’ premium, image-led identity.

Redesigned Leucos homepage annotated with seven improvements to messaging, navigation, content hierarchy, product discovery, and featured projects.

A premium brand experience should feel distinctive, not difficult to navigate.

Wrapping up

This project reinforced that a visually distinctive homepage still needs to answer a few basic questions quickly: what the brand offers, where users should begin, and how they can move through the experience. It also showed me that a UX audit becomes more valuable when its findings are translated into clear design priorities rather than treated as isolated interface issues. Balancing Leucos’ premium identity with stronger hierarchy, accessibility, and user control became the central challenge, while usability testing confirmed that the revised navigation was clearer.